Hey all!

The group I GM for uses a YT-2400 as their main ship, but I suspect they'll be eying fighters when they have the money or if one is presented as a reward. Now, the 2400 is silhouette 4 and thus cannot mount a hangar bay (the size listed on Wookieepedia rules that out too.). It says in the Core book that many freighters have docking clamps that they can use to "hold onto" fighters and other smaller ships. Can I get some logistics on that? Would they be docked in such a way that a PC could go directly from a hatch or airlock into their fighter? Would a spacewalk be needed? How feasible is it to have a fighter semi-permanently docked to a light freighter, much like the shuttles on Firefly?

I think it would be easy enough to have them lock with each other and having a airtight bridge between the two but not no maneuvering or jumping.

That being said if they had two YT-2400 with some heavy modifications they could connect one on top of the other. (think pancakes) But I honestly don't think it would be worth the trade off.

I don't know. Get enough vehicles with docking clamps and you can form Voltron.. not the good voltron, the lame vehicle one. Voltron none the less though. Well, less cool, for sure. Forget I mentioned the crappy vehicle Voltron.

The Citadel-class in the book has docking clamps for up to 2 fighters. I think the details are left intentionally murky as to how one gets to them, to prevent getting into too many specifics and leaving the door open for some associated cinematic moments. Frankly unless the ship has sustained some critical damage I wouldn't worry about how exactly people are loading into their fighters.

That being said, most fighters used by the Rebels have onboard atmospheric systems so going straight from airlock to cockpit would be preferable since Rebel flight suits are not depicted to be sealed generally (which is stupid from a scientific perspective of ejection, but whatever, maybe they just never showed the respiration masks it in the movie). Imperial fighters generally don't have atmosphere and require the use of a respirator suit to function and provide pressure and breathable gas to the pilot.

The docking clamp thing is new with EotE, its a work around intended to give players a way to use fighters and freighters without the awkwardness of the logistics.

They way I read it the clamping is supposed to allow a seamless transition between freighter and fighter for players that want to go that route. I'd say the airlock connection is supposed to be pretty clean and simple, with firefly as a good enough comparison.

That being said, most fighters used by the Rebels have onboard atmospheric systems so going straight from airlock to cockpit would be preferable since Rebel flight suits are not depicted to be sealed generally (which is stupid from a scientific perspective of ejection, but whatever, maybe they just never showed the respiration masks it in the movie). Imperial fighters generally don't have atmosphere and require the use of a respirator suit to function and provide pressure and breathable gas to the pilot.

In the films this was for artistic reasons (heroes have faces, villains don't) but for what its worth in the original x-wing game an ejection showed the grey box on the x-wings pilots chest being up over their face after ejection.

Of course rebel assault 2 showed TIE pilots wearing nothing but a set of giant headphones so take it as you will...

SWG had a cool helmet design.

http://swg.wikia.com/wiki/Rebel_Ace_Fighter_Helmet

In "Heir to the Empire" I'm pretty sure they deal with clamping an X-Wing to the Millennium Falcon, and possibly to Talon Karrde's ship too.

The Rebel flight suits were designed for space. Regardless of cinematic leeway given so we could see the pilots faces.

But to the OP comment:

A docking harness could be used so the smaller ship can be clamped on. Tho it might be vulnerable to damage and ruining it's effectiveness. Also the Hyperspace bubble can be modified to allow clamped ship to travel with the parent ship, tho it might reduce the endurance of the parent ship.

Obviously speed and maneuverability would be reduced for the parent ship also.

For most Light Freighters i think the easiest option would be Dorsal side to Dorsal side docking, opening the Airlock, going through the Zero-G access and crawling into the cockpit and sealing everything up. But i wouldn't make any landings in a gravity well with the ships docked.

That is why I liked the Manta fighter (Tapani Sector Adventures by WEG) that allowed a lamprey style docking with little modification to the parent ship

In my game the PC's just got a fighter to go along with their YT-1300 and I'd probably allow for a docking clamp on the top of the ship. But I'm going follow it with the fact that there's no airlock mechanism, so you'd have to go for a bit of a spacewalk to get in/out of the ship - this is partially because the cockpits clearly open upwards and mostly because it'll be way more cinematic for a pilot to have to clamber out in the middle of a space battle.

I'd also say because the YT-1300 is a somewhat bulky, smaller freighter that it will suffer from handling or speed reduction when they're docked.

In regards to the clamps on the citadel, that would be a design feature of that craft. And the manufacturer probably designed it to work with other koensayer products such as the y-wing. Of course modifications could occur for other vessels

I would say that every, freighter at least, would have a docking clamp that is universal for safety/docking reasons. Similar to the falcon docked with the medical frigate. This clamp would not work in hyperspace.

I am hoping that with the new rebels animation we will get a docking clamp mod as there is an imperial gozanti cruiser with clamps for four tie fighters.

What is the point of "Docking" if you have to go EVA to get in, and couldn't go to hyperspace while docked. Throwing out a tow cable would accomplish the same thing with lower cost.

What I was suggesting is that all freighters and larger have the ability to dock with fighters, but there are limitations. A modification removes those limitations.

As to the tow cable, the only downside is any gm I know will use physics and on a despair roll will cause a collision.

Good stuff, everyone! Yeah from what it looks like, a YT 2400 is actually a bit smaller than a 1300, so while the fighter's docked, I'll probably nerf the handling and maneuverability of the main ship. I'll also encourage the bounty hunter that's likely going to be the pilot to invest in vacuum sealing his armor so he can safely get to the fighter.

Might also allow them to get some kind of modification that allows for an easier time of it if they've got the cash.

And according to the CRB, the docking clamps are there specifically to allow non-hyperspace-enabled fighters to tag along with a hyperspace-enabled ship, so there probably won't be issues there.

Interesting factoid: The group I'm running is two players, so I let them team up with a smuggler they rescued. I figured a fighter, especially one like a Y-Wing or Jumpmaster, would be a good 'big reward' for the current arc's finale. That way they could go into the next 'season' being able to go on missions at their own whim instead of relying on their smuggler friend for everything.

I could see handling/maneuverability issues in atmosphere, but not in space.

I guess I'm thinking...what's the point? If it's punitive because they have a fighter, just don't let them have a fighter to begin with.

I could see handling/maneuverability issues in atmosphere, but not in space.

I guess I'm thinking...what's the point? If it's punitive because they have a fighter, just don't let them have a fighter to begin with.

I could see handling/maneuverability issues in atmosphere, but not in space.

I guess I'm thinking...what's the point? If it's punitive because they have a fighter, just don't let them have a fighter to begin with.

The point, I guess, is that I want to be prepared for it. And i do want them to have a fighter or something at some point, I'm just looking for how to handle it with a ship that isn't a Wayfarer or something similarly sized, and preparing what to have in mind when they inevitably ask "Well how is the ship going to carry it?"

You want fighters to go along, get something bigger or they fly solo with you. The Falcon, when it hooks to an X-wing, uses a flexible tube to connect to the cockpit of the X-wing from one of it's airlocks (mostly the topside one seen in ESB). Anchoring could be done via magnetic grapples on the bottom of the landing pads of the X-wing.

Larger ships, like the Blockade Runner seen in the beginning of ANH could be modded to house fighters on a rotation link to one of the side airlocks (yes, WEG did this for the Farstryder campaign boxed set).

Go larger than the Blockade Runner and you're back to full blown hangers inside the ships with magnetic atmospheric containment screens.

Before you start delving too hard into the rules... Understand that the purpose of the ship, etc is to support the narration of the story. If they want it, and you're good with it, give it to them. (Well, let'm earn it.)

The Haynes Millenium Falcon Handbook documents several options for the Falcon including a mini fighter in the airlock.

So, if your players want to stuff small(er) fighters in their S4 freighter. It's hard... The stats for anything they can reasonably use would not be good, and most certainly wouldn't stand up to a real fighter, one-on-one. (It would take a lot of skill to offset the deficiencies.) Regular fighters may be able to dock at air locks, but as others have said here there would be issues around jump and handling for the mother ship.

I'd have your players look at larger freighters... S5 is sufficient for Small Turbo Lasers, and 1 or two snub fighters. I. E. Fighters with reasonable stats.

I'm a big fan of this guy's ship plans;

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=606

Some of his ships are easily large enough freighters for fighters. The Exeter has a small shuttle bay and cargo bays, and it looks a bit like the Serenity.

'The Venture' is a YT-1930 look alike. It's cockpit is a break away shuttle (I gave it crappy stats) and it has two cargo bays out back. Each bay looks large enough to handle a small speeder or mini fighter. (The Misfortune has some great cargo pods by the way. You know, like bounty hunter holding cells or sleeper dorms.)